Lawrence Weiner

Lawrence Weiner’s texts have appeared in all
sorts of places over the last five decades and although he sees himself as a
sculptor rather than a conceptualist, he is among the trailblazers of the 1960s
to present art as language. He defines his sculptural medium simply as
‘language + the material referred to’, in the sense that language is a material
for construction. Accordingly, his first book Statements (1968) contains 24 typewritten descriptions
of works, where only a few had actually been made, suggesting that a work’s
existence requires a readership rather than a physical presence. Weiner’s Statement of Intent (1969)
even more clearly identifies ‘universal availability’ as a guiding principle:

1. The artist may construct the piece.

2. The piece may be fabricated.

3. The piece need not be built.

Each being equal and consistent with the
intent of the artist, the decision as to condition rests with the receiver upon
the occasion of receivership.

Self-taught as an artist, his urgency to
make art broadly available and engaging stems, he says, from his childhood in
the South Bronx: “I didn’t have the advantage of a middle-class perspective.
Art was something else; art was the notations on the wall, or the messages left
by other people. I grew up in a city where I had read the walls; I still read
the walls. I love to put work of mine out on the walls and let people read it.
Some will remember it and then somebody else comes along and puts something
else over it. It becomes archaeology rather than history.” (2013) While his
works exist only as language and can be displayed in any form, he is closely
involved in manifestations, detailing the size of the font, the surface texture
and placement of the paint or vinyl letters and indeed often inventing new
fonts. Texts appear on walls and windows of galleries and public spaces, as
spoken word in audio recordings and video, printed books and posters, cast or
carved objects, tattoos, graffiti, lyrics, online, ad infinitum.